Washington quarterback Jake Locker hands off the ball to Austin Sylvester during Saturday's game against UCLA. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Trojan Talk: Washington preview

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Jake Locker wasted it. The Washington quarterback knows it, feels it and had this past bye week to stew about the blown showcase opportunity two Saturdays ago with the nation watching him on ABC, at least half the throbbing crowd of 72,876 pulling for him at Husky Stadium and the No. 8 Nebraska Cornhuskers standing across the stage.

That was the Sept. 18 game when the fifth-year senior essentially wadded up all his glossy college football magazine covers, tore up all the Heisman Trophy and All-America candidate short lists, and trashed ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr.'s Big Board that had him listed as the projected No. 1 player in the 2011 NFL draft.

He threw it all away. Like his first pass from scrimmage when he tossed the ball into double coverage and into the hands of Nebraska defensive back Eric Hagg. Garbage. Gone.

The game was supposed to be a defining one, and it was. Locker was definitely not Heisman-worthy, delivering his worst performance on arguably his biggest stage. He completed just 4 of 20 passes for 71 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in the 56-21 Nebraska stomping.

"Obviously that wasn't anywhere near where I wanted to play individually," said Locker, who intends to hop out of what has been a senior slump with an impressive, cathartic and breakout performance Saturday against No. 18 USC (4-0, 1-0) at the Coliseum.

Disappointing doesn't begin to describe this season for Locker, who bypassed being an NFL first-round pick and likely some team's clipboard-toting backup for unfinished business with the Huskies (1-2).

He seemed destined to become another flag-bearer of Washington quarterbacks, joining Warren Moon, Sonny Sixkiller, Mark Brunell and Damon and Brock Huard.

But through a season-opening loss to BYU, a victory over Syracuse and the horrific defeat to the Cornhuskers, Locker is on a career-worst pace. He has completed just 46 of 90 passes for 626 yards and six touchdowns, with two interceptions. He has also run for 100 yards and two touchdowns on 27 attempts.

His 208.7 passing yards per game ranks him seventh in the Pac-10. He is last in the conference in pass efficiency (127.1). He is 9-22 as Washington's starter and still inexperienced in the college football luxuries of winning records and bowl games.

Locker, who led the Pac-10 in total offense (265.7 ypg) last season, admirably returned for the love of U-Dub, the college game's pageantry and the program's rebirth under second-year coach Steve Sarkisian.

Sarkisian is the former USC offensive assistant who guided the Huskies to a 5-7 record last season from a winless (0-12) mark the year before. He polished USC quarterback Carson Palmer (Santa Margarita) into a Heisman winner his senior year and was expected to put Locker through the same finishing school.

"But it's not all happening like we planned," said Sarkisian, who has seen Locker press, push, and force the game that once came so fluidly to him. "It's just not like him."

To start the season, Locker was touted by some as the best quarterback in the nation. Right now, he's not even the second-, third- or even fourth-best quarterback in his conference, having been surpassed by Stanford sophomore Andrew Luck, Arizona junior Nick Foles and USC sophomore Matt Barkley.

"He's a real competitor," Barkley said of Locker. "It's clear on the field and not in his numbers right now. I know that that's eating him alive because he wants to be the best."

We were supposed to see progress. Instead Locker has regressed. We were supposed to see a superstar. Instead we see a slump. We were expecting to see this 6-foot-3, 230-pound weapon with a catapult arm and canon legs to make plays, like his game-winning, fourth-quarter, 10-play, 63-yard drive in last season's 16-13 upset of then-No. 3 USC.

Instead he makes mistakes.

USC coach Lane Kiffin still considers Locker "the best player we have faced this season. He has just such a unique combination of a guy who looks like he runs about a 4.4, is as big as can be and can throw the ball so well."

But that hasn't happened yet. Locker has been throwing the opportunities away.

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